BAHRAIN QUALIFYING - AS IT HAPPENED

Here's our report of the day's racing.

The Ferrari man takes it!

Max Verstappen's last lap brings him up to second, with Sainz in third.

Fourth goes to Perez. Hamilton is only in fifth, with Russell all the way down in ninth.

"My tires are REDACTED," he exclaims.

1. Sainz 1:30.687

2. Leclerc

3. Verstappen

4. Perez

5. Hamilton

6. Russell

Ferrari find some more. Six and a bit minutes left.

Red Bull sitting pretty.

We go again, again, for the first time this season.

At the end of Q2, we see drivers binned off again.

Zhou is out, Albon finally can't get out of trouble, Norris is out, Ocon can't make it, and Mick Schumacher is out. We're down to the last 10, with Valtteri Bottas (102 consecutive races in Q3 now), in 10th.

Haas' new, old driver is given a warning by his team.

He's told to be careful as there's a hydraulics issue with his car.

Hamilton remains fifth, Russell up to sixth, though.

For now...

Verstappen sets a time of 1:30.757.

Six-10ths of a second behind is Leclerc, just ahead of Perez.

And they are impressed with their peers.

He was the driver at risk last session, so wants to get straight back out to push further ahead.

He's the only one on his out lap for now.

Hamilton into fifth, Russell in eighth.

Tsunoda, Hulkenberg, Ricciardo, Stroll and Latifi all out of the next round.

After years of struggling, there were signs of life last season and now they appear strong early runners. Leclerc and Sainz still top.

A decent showing from Hamilton, into fifth. Russell comes in at 10th. There's still plenty of work for the Mercedes to do but we're not yet at a crisis.

Leclerc smashes into the lead, with 1:31.471, 0.096s clear of Sainz who is ahead of all but his teammate. We're waiting for the Mercedes now...

Verstappen currently top with 1:31.909, half a second ahead of his teammate Perez. Hamilton and Russell are on their out lap.

18 minutes of qualifying now and the best 15 proceed to the next section. Tsunoda is out on the track after missing all of FP3 with a hydraulics problem.

The first qualifying of the season is underway.